Интервю с Martin van Drunen (ASPHYX)

If you are looking for a definition of “ death metal voice“ it has its physical appearance in the face of Martin van Drunen, frontman , singer and songwriter of ASPHYX.  The unique death metal voice of Van Drunen will blow off Sofia’s club Live & Loud on 27 – March, at the invitation of Live & Loud. About the upcoming event, ASPHYX upcoming album we had the opportunity to talk to one of the key players on the European death metal scene, we have also discussed where from draws his inspiration Martin Van Drunen, past and future of the old-school death metal.

Hello Martin, I am calling from Metal Hangar 18. Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you. Our audience is very interested in your work, especially in relation to your upcoming concert in Bulgaria. So, may I ask you few questions?

In November 2015 you started recording a new ASPHYX album. Recently, in an interview, you stated that „in 2016 brutal new album will come out, entirely in the Asphyx style.”  When can we expect this new album? Are there any surprises in it?

Martin: When we can expect it… depends a little bit. Because we had, I won’t say a bad luck but a little bit of problem with the drum sound, so I think we have to record it again. So, it will be a little bit late than we expected, but we hope to have it ready around June, so if that does not happen, it will be after the summer, but it will be definitely this year. About surprises – may be some surprises, but the style of Asphyx is what we stick to, what we do, so musically I do not think there will be very big surprises – just the way we are, we make metal and we will always do.

What made you leave Hail of Bullets? Do you think the group will change its overall appearance with other vocal?

Martin: It was not really enjoying it that much anymore and I wanted to focus more on Asphyx. We were really busy with Asphyx for the last year. We did a lot of touring, a small tour in South America, lots of shows; we are focusing on a new album. Anyway, we decided to have a Hail of Bullets to take a break. If you have the chance to think things over for an year, you go – well, we had three fantastic albums with the band and I am not really sure if we could be up to another big concept of what I wrote for the band and I don’t really know if there is still a challenge there for me in Hail of Bullets and they know that too, because I met Stephan last week and we had a great time. We are not enemies, we are still friends – we had a good time together and we are grown up men, so there is no bad feeling or something in all of that. I know that they will do one concert in the US because it was booked long time ago and from that point onwards they will just see what will happen, if they want to continue at all. And that is the story.

Pestilence is one of the earliest and most important death metal bands in Europe. Today they are recognized as a band inspired so many followers. Do you think there is any difference between European and American death metal scene at the time?

Martin: At that time when we started, no, I don’t think there was a big difference. I think, especially the European bands at that time were influenced by the American bands and then after, you got the whole rollover from the Swedish and from us, Dutch and that’s where later American bands relate their sound to us, but I think that before that moment, some American bands influenced us, that was actually in the demo days. Smaller bands like, Autopsy and Death, and especially Possessed. There were a lot of American bands, really heavy, and we did not have that type of thing in Europe at that time. We still were lot more trash like Kreator or Destruction, or Sodom, which had still very heavy albums, but it was not really death metal, it was trash metal. Before that we had, of course, Venom which was European, but if it comes to pure death metal, I think that the main influence came from America at that time. Nowadays, this is completely changed, I think, the biggest influence is now from Europe, but not at that time.

Back then metal media was very limited in Bulgaria

Martin: Yes, yes, I know that

So would you share with us the real reason to leave Pestilence after masterpiece Consuming Impulse?

Martin: It is a bit of really historical thing (laughing). It is OK though. I mean, I left because we had a really big problem during the tour in the US and after that there was a meeting with the band, here in Netherlands with me and instead of a reasonable talking I got all kind of silly accusations on my head like I was arrogant, bad, fool which was not true at all and I just said “OK – this is not the way to talk with each other and I left. Fuck off.” and that was it and after that it never came good. We tried to do it once; we tried to reanimate the band but there was still the same problem.

Was it around 2007-2008?

Martin: No, no, it was earlier, in 2000. It was before they returned back. Then I said “Well, we will do not do the old songs? OK, that is just crazy! So, we might not do it then…” and we stopped talking. This is basically the short story. Afterwards there was lots of hostility, and kind of a noise in the press who is to blame and who is not to blame. It was me that took the decision to go and I could not live anymore with a bunch of guys that was acting the way they were acting. It was just a crap.

You have unique death metal voice, preserved over the years, which bands/vocals influenced you most in your early years on stage?

Martin: You mean my kind of personal influences? I am a bit older, so for me, the main influences that I had were Lemmy and Cronus from Venom, especially Cronus afterwards. In the beginning Motorhead was the hardest band in the world and of course Lemmy was the first man that got the whole thing, not really to follow something. Then when I was younger, I really liked the speed in the voice of Tom Araya from Slayer, because he sings so incredibly fast. There were other things like Wattie from Exploited, Jeff from Possessed. I think that’s my personal influences and later I developed my own style.

In Pestilence you used to play bass, are you still using this instrument?

Martin: Yeah, once in a while I grab my bass. I used to play a bass in Asphyx too, long time ago, in the beginning and sometimes I grab it, but I am more like a frontman and a vocalist now. So, I really focus on lyrics. That is more my thing. But yes, sometimes I grab my bass.

So you say you are focusing on lyrics. Are you writing it all?

Martin: Yes, yes, of course, I am writing it. I am in a process of doing this now. I am in the middle of writing lyrics for our new songs.

Is there some new topic that you include now or something that you feel you want to express through your lyrics for the new album?

No. There is nothing really new. Asphyx has always done its mix between reality kind of doom lyrics and some of those funny, gloom lyrics or we have science fiction or name it “war” or it may be anything. What I am trying to figure out now is the last few song titles. It is not ready yet, but it will come. Of course, there are many other subjects that are in my head and I do not use them, but we still have not finished all of the songs. I am waiting for that actually, so I can really prepare all of the songs together and see what lyrics fits or which topic fits best to specific song, to it’s atmosphere. It is a long process, but it is really cool thing to do.

Which bands you consider as true pioneers of death metal that have the strongest influence on the subsequent development of the genre?

Martin: It’s not only death metal, but I think purely to be very loud and fast, Motorhead was the first band to do so, they did not played really death, and straight afterwards was Venom the loudest band. So, for me they were the main influences. Then after you got the whole wave coming with the recorded demos from Death – they were very important, lot of cd’s, may be seven, and then Possessed too and they were the first two  who came out with a song called Death Metal. So, I think here you have the main once. Like I said, the whole wave came really after, but those are the once that really set the standard and then what came was really faster than the regular heavy metal and they had vocalists that did not sing clear, they didn’t sing like blues singers or something, but really rough. This was the start and you have the roller coaster rolling.

How do you see now death metal scene? Is there any development of the genre lately or it is in a period of long stagnation and repeating clichés? Is there anything you do not like about metal today? Would recommend any young bands you consider to have great potential?

Martin: What I personally didn’t like, was the course that death was heading few years ago, where everybody wanted to play very, very technical and I really didn’t like that, I did not really recognize anything with these bands, they had no songs, they had just few guitar players that freak out. If you want to do that, go on stage only by yourself and if you want to show the people how good you can play, well, I am not interested in how good you can play I am interested in what songs you can make. They were not doing that, so there was a kind of development that I did not like, but nowadays that changed and there are lot of young bands that started playing old school that is how it’s called nowadays. They started playing old school death metal which is way more accessible and I liked that a lot. There are lot of good death bands that are coming now which was not the case for few years ago. We have some Netherlands‘ bands like Funeral Whore, Bodyfarm or Entrapment and I listened lately to a Canadian band called Tombe and I like Beton from Slovakia – they are really younger bands, but they are playing very well, of course there is nothing new, but they are playing very well and I really like what they do.

With which bands did you feel most comfortable on tour?

Martin: They are so many, we had really good time with Malignant Tumour from Czech Republic; I don’t know if you know them. We are really good friends and that was really good time. They are really technical, but really nice guys. We meet a lot of bands at the festivals and we always have a good time like last weekend (A/N: Netherlands Deathfest 2016) – we had really good time with Autopsy; we met the guys from Entrails. Basically, everybody likes to have a good time, to play simple death metal and to drink a beer with us. In the past it was Entombed, we still hang out with Grave, or way back, with Bolt Thrower, everybody actually (laughing).

Which is your most valuable experience during a concert, something you would not forget?

Martin: Long time ago when we did a tour I think with Benediction, Bolt Thrower and Asphyx, one of the crew guys, Spiky, he died in a car accident on the road. So, the other bands said because I was Dutch, can you just explain the crowd why we are not looking that happy and marry, why we do not feel like playing and we only do this because Spiky would want us to do so. I explained the people what happened and then the whole venue was filled with people holding lighters. That was really very wonderful and impressive feeling – everybody showed sympathy for this man they even did not know. They understood and appreciated that the bands keep on playing even without that much enthusiasm. It was a very special thing.

You were a part of some of the biggest death metal bands. In which band you would like to be, but have not been so far?

Martin: (Laughing) I don’t know. I know few that everybody wants to play in. May be, just to have a fun show with Autopsy right now or hang out with Entombed or younger bands, just to go on stage and have fun, I have been on a tour with Bolt Thrower, I have been a vocalist for them for like 2 years which was very, very special and a big honour and now Asphyx. I did Hail of Bullets, so I can’t complaint.

Who do you think is most appropriate vocal for Bolt Thrower?

Martin: I think it was Karl. I am glad he returned. He did all the albums and he is just Bolt Thrower‘s voice, so when he returned he did Those Once Loyal and he did a great job and for me he is the most appropriate singer for Bolt Thrower.

In this regards, you are visiting Bulgaria on 27th of March. What is your planned setlist?

Martin: No, we do not have one. We make the setlist few days before the event and we will see what we are going to do, but it will be a good mix of later songs and a lot of old songs, because it is our first headlining show in Sofia and in Bulgaria, in general. So, we want to make it a long show with a kind of a mix of songs that everybody likes. I hope everybody will be satisfied after and happy, but we still have to sort it out. There will be some songs from The Racks, some songs from the Last One (A/N: Last  One on Earth), some songs from Death the Brutal Way, some songs form a  Deathhammer, but we still have to figure out which one exactly.

Do you think to play something from the new album?

Martin: No, I do not think we are going to do that. I think that it does not make any much sense to the people if they do not know the song. They want to have a beer, to have a good time and I think that it will be good for them if they focus on a material they know and we will have a good time. It will be a nice show. May be we will return next year and we will play newer material which they will know then.

What else outside the music is important and meaningful to you? If you go back to the beginning, what would you do now and how?

Martin: I do not think I would change much. I mean next to music, my other passion is reading.

What are your favourite authors?

Martin: They are many, of course when it comes about horror, I like a lot Lovecraft and Poe (A/N: Edgar Allen Poe), but I also like classics, Victor Hugo from France, for example, the Russian once like Dostoevsky or Pasternak, then there is this whole this wave after the second World War like Theodore Plievier. There are really a lot.

What about Remark?

Martin: Remark, of course, he is fantastic, I do not know the titles in English as when I can, I read in German and if I could I just would read it in the original language. There is a book, (and the movie) is called, I think, “All Quiet on the Western Front” and it is a really good one. But there are few authors, it was not just Remark. But Remark was after the First World War

Yes, he is between First and Second World War

Martin: Yes, between both wars. I just read sometimes a lot of heavy literature, but if I do this too much I get a bit, I would not say depressed, but depraved, and then I just read something lighter. I like writers like Dean Koontz or Clive Barker, or something I discovered when I was a child, nice fictional things, but they are just lighter. But I always keep on reading.

Probably this influences your writing?

Martin: Sometimes I see something on the history channel, and I say – fuck, this is nice for a show, for a song, sometimes it may happen on the newsletter, and you go – wow, this is just incredible, but there are lot of things that I just get from books and it does not have to be the subject in the book, it may be a page where they talk about something and then I make my own research. So, yes, books give me a root and a lot of inspiration.

And finally, your message to MH18 fans:

Martin: I really hope that everybody can come and as I said, it is our first headlining show in Sofia, so we really, really look forward to it. People, who want to have their stuff signed, bring them over, because you will be able to meet us, to get pictures, to take photographs with us, so we really are looking forward to it.

Thank you for the interview

Martin: You are welcome and see you there.

Interviewer: Rhiannon

Questions: Mad Butcher